


let sleeping castles lie

by spoke



Category: Last Unicorn - Peter S. Beagle
Genre: Fireworks, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-20
Updated: 2012-12-20
Packaged: 2017-11-21 17:47:32
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,588
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/600472
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spoke/pseuds/spoke
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Many thanks to my beta, G, without whom several parts of this fic would not make even as much sense as they do. Any remaining senselessness is my own fault.</p>
    </blockquote>





	let sleeping castles lie

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Flamebyrd](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Flamebyrd/gifts).



> Many thanks to my beta, G, without whom several parts of this fic would not make even as much sense as they do. Any remaining senselessness is my own fault.

When Molly and Schmendrick traveled, which was most of the time, they rode. They lingered in places sometimes, towns where something interesting had happened and the homes of new friends, but their real home was out on the road and wherever the horses would take them.

Where the horses didn’t want to take a road, it was generally best to avoid it. 

But when it was a road Schmendrick was determined to take, at the end of which lay only a little kingdom, to the best of his memory, well. He hardly needed to ask Molly’s opinion on this one, but he turned anyway. “Well. What do you think?” 

“Can you make them go on?” Molly asked, petting her own horse as soothingly as she could. The horse, so far, was having none of it, and for her part Molly almost agreed. It was unsettling knowing something this large was unhappy. 

“Absolutely. What I want to know,” he muttered to himself as he urged them on, “is what’s happening up there. The last time I was here, they were celebrating the birth of a princess.”

“Well, it sounds lovely.” Molly replied, still soothing her own horse and pausing briefly to reach over to his. Then she sighed. “What’s wrong with it?” 

He stared at her hand a moment and chose not to comment on that. “It’s a time to be careful, especially near these mountains. Witches tend to frequent them, and they’re usually the vengeful, petty sort. One missed invitation and you’ve got a world of trouble on your hands.” 

“Oh. A world of trouble - like that?” Molly half-whispered, and he turned from the saddlebags to look ahead.

They’d just gotten to the top of the hill, and the valley had opened up in front of them. The valley that contained no signs of life, but did have a distant pile of rubble ahead with the look of a fallen castle, and charred ruins closer by. It looked almost as if something had just swept everything over, giving it a flat sort of look at this distance. 

“That would be an exceptionally _bad_ case of irrational witchery.” 

* * *

It took them most of the morning to get there, though neither of them felt particularly like hurrying. It was clear even from a distance that no one was home. When they did reach it, well.

At first it seemed the simple ruin of a town, fallen boards and charred stones bearing silent witness to their exploration. Even when they took a walk up to the castle, all they could tell was that it had been very nice, judging by the charred finery littered among the fallen walls. 

Molly picked up one of the plates, scrubbing at it speculatively before laying it back down. Schmendrick ended up following a faint thread of blue up to what had probably been the throne room, and frowned as he saw that it was the most intact. 

It was as they returned to the town that Molly started hearing things. Schmendrick lost sight of her for a second and ended up following the sound of her voice as she called to someone out in the ruins. “Molly, there’s no one there.” 

She went very still before turning to look at him. “Schmendrick? I heard someone out there, I’m sure of it.” 

“That’s what worries me. Let’s go back to camp, I want to set some wards about it. I have a feeling this place is going to be a lot less safe at night.” He turned and stalked back to camp, but he made sure to keep her in sight this time. Whatever this curse was, if he had to rescue Molly too it was going to take twice as long to sort out. Catch him admitting that, though.

He didn’t dare tell her he was hearing things too, or they’d be trying to talk to them next. Sadistically amiable skeletons aside, talking to ghosts tended to end badly. 

* * *

He’d shielded the camp as best he could, and they’d both lain down for some sleep, when the wailing started. Which was really odd, because when they’d both started upright and stumbled to the edge of the wards, there was nothing there but a brightly lit village.

Intact, and decorated for a celebration. They could hear distant voices floating over the wards, raised in song, but none of the words were distinct. “It looks like they’re still celebrating.” Schmendrick whispered. 

He barely heard Molly reply, “Celebrating what, though. You’d think the last thing they’d remember would be whatever burnt the place down. Why a party?” She looked at him, and waved a hand in front of his face. “Schmendrick?” 

He swatted her hand away.“I was just thinking. You’re right about this, you know. Usually you only get one ghost, or a couple, and they’re terribly sad or frightened. Or confused, because they start to fade away. Or else they’re like that old rat of a skull in Haggard’s castle. A large group like this, they _should_ still be afraid of whatever killed them, reinforcing each other’s memories. No. No, there’s magic here, and powerful magic. I just don’t understand what it’s doing.” 

“I think it might be somebody young, don’t you?” Schmendrick looked at her, and Molly smiled wryly. “I mean really, a party? For all this time, however long it’s been?” A thoughtful look came into her eyes, and she looked between the cheerful village and the wizard. “How long _has_ it been, anyway? Now that I think about it, they look a bit old-fashioned to me. See the lady with the blue dress? No one wears frills like that anymore, it looks silly.” 

“I don’t know. I got out of the habit of keeping track of time, while I waited.” He shook his head, coming back to himself from distant memories. “We’re waiting until morning before we do anything about this, though. We’ll probably get caught inside whatever this is if we try anything now.”

“And by we you mean you?” Molly teased, already turning to bed. 

“What are you going to do, stand there and watch? Because past experience tells me that’s not likely at all.” He called after her, and was going to say more when he heard a voice much closer than the rest. “Hello, stranger. Have you been here long?” 

Schmendrick stared for a moment, uncertain how best to respond. The slightly glowing gentleman was right at the edge of his wards, seeming completely unconcerned about them. Then he stepped over it, and Schmendrick went cold. “Would you like to come to the village? It’s her birthday, you know.” 

He barely heard himself babbling that there quite fine, no invitations needed thanks all the same. All he could think was that they weren’t ghosts, because no actual ghost could have gone past those wards. As it left, he backed up and into Molly, and they both started away from each and ended on the ground.

Neither of them slept very well, after that. 

* * *

The ‘ghosts’ had gone by sunrise, and Schmendrick and Molly ate in a silence that would have been peaceful if either of them had felt comfortable turning their backs on the ruins. After a while Molly asked, without looking up from the apple she was turning over in her hands, “Do you think they’re still there, during the day?”

Schmendrick sighed. For his part, he’d hardly touched the food; he was more interested in watching the sky. Or anything except the village - he kept trying to imagine how the ruins had fit into the whole, and it gave him a headache. “Who knows? I can sense something there, now that I know it’s there to be looked for, but it’s not like anything I’ve ever run into. Well.” He shifted, getting up and smiling as he offered Molly his hand. “Not since I could do anything about it.” 

Except that they marched all over the village, and nothing he tried could do a thing. All the spells he knew, even adjusted for what he’d learned the night before, amounted to nothing. The most he could tell was that the something there was rather like music, playing just out of his hearing. 

As the day wore on into evening he began to get fairly irritated, but Molly became more cheerful. It wasn’t until he turned around and didn’t see her that he realized he should have paid more attention to that. “Well at least I have something solid to focus on.” he growled, and started again. 

* * *

It didn’t help as much as he’d hoped.

By the time he could even sense Molly again, the sun had set and the revel was in full swing around him. Disturbingly enough, they didn’t seem to have the slightest interest in him now. He found himself walking through walls and people, which might have been unnerving if he hadn’t seen worse, and generally feeling as if he were the ghost. 

He ended up in the castle, which looked more beautiful than he could have imagined. There was more gilt on every surface than anyone could need, and people dressed in the sort of finery that would get shredded by everyday wear. Which would have made sense if they were lords and ladies, but he was fairly certain none of that class would be carrying around laundry or sweeping. In fact it was possibly more beautiful than could be real, and that was when he started to feel something itching at the back of his mind, the feeling that he’d missed something. He wandered through halls that became even more gilded the closer he got to Molly, and yet he wasn’t actually worried.

Well, the magic knew what it was doing, didn’t it. “Magic, do as you will. That’s always at the heart of it.” He paused, and pushed through a door when he forgot he couldn’t open it. 

Molly was sitting on the floor of a truly exquisite playroom, having tea with a little girl and her dollies. “More sugar, your Majesty?” she said, and they both laughed while Schmendrick stared. It was very much as if he’d been frozen solid when he came in the door. 

Molly and the girl laughed, and time slowed down around them all while he fought whatever was holding him. It occurred to him as he struggled that she was the princess whose birth they’d been celebrating... or maybe it was her birthday? Able to move his head just a little, and to shift his fingers, he checked for a spindle or an apple or something of the sort. There was nothing he could see right away, but since he still couldn’t see much of anything, that didn’t make him feel a bit better. 

Molly and the girl seemed well, at least, continuing on with their tea party as if no one else was in the room. “Molly! Molly

Eventually, he came up against something. The attempt to breach it caused whatever was holding him to pop, and he landed face-first on the floor. The princess screamed, Molly yelled his name, and everything went black.

He came to with a throbbing pain where his face should be. He was thinking something very foul about whoever was responsible, in a general sort of way and without remembering what might’ve tried to smash his face in. Molly was hovering over him, he could tell that much. He didn’t know any other women who didn’t care about his language. Though she was trying to shoosh him a little, which was odd. There was a different voice, too. A younger one. 

Eventually, he came to enough to recognize himself as being concussed, and thought to use magic to ease the worst of it. Molly sighed when she saw him focusing again, and helped him up. 

“All right, you found her first. Do you have any idea what’s going on?”

* * *

They’d gotten halfway through the tragic story of the witch who wanted the princess named after her, and were just agreeing that Eliza was a much nicer name than Demsella, when the room started getting cold. Schmendrick caught the princess’s eyes, saw the fear in them, and frowned. “All right, I’ve had just about enough of this.”

He spun, and started yelling in the face of the witch who apparently really hadn’t been expecting him, judging from the way she started back. “What are you doing, you idiot! You incompetent amateur! Did you have any idea what you wanted from these people when you decided to start screwing up their lives, or were you just killing time!” He saw Molly from the corner of his eyes, pulling the girl closer to her and backing away from them, but he was too focused on the witch to care. 

Listening to himself, he was vaguely reminded of watching Molly confront the unicorn. He couldn’t understand why, though, and it only fueled his temper that he didn’t have time to sort it out. 

Demsella drew herself up as much as she could, and he was reminded sharply of Mommy Fortuna, even though she wasn’t nearly that old. There was something like her in the hard young eyes, only strong and vicious instead of lost and yearning. “You think _I_ did this? You’re a fool, magician. The _girl_ did this. I’ve just been trying to undo it.” 

He sneered and drew back, hoping it at least didn’t look as if he’d just had a fit. “Oh, out of the goodness of your heart I suppose?” 

“Out of the desire for an apprentice, idiot.” she snarled, and then went towards the girl. 

Molly stopped her, standing in front of Eliza with her head lifted and her eyes harder than the witch’s. “If you think I’m going to let you lay a finger on this child!” She shifted to stay in front of her, and without turning her head spoke to the girl. “Darling, go to Schmendrick. He’s a good wizard, sweetie, he’ll protect you.” 

“Molly!” 

“Schmendrick, get the girl out. I’ll not have her ending up like this one.” she hissed, and smiled the sharper for the witch stepping back.

He was about to reply when he felt a small hand tugging at his sleeve. “Sir Sorcerer? Can _you_ help me fix it?” 

Startled, he looked down. “Help you fix it? Child, are you telling me she’s right?” 

She was twisting her hands now, and he hoped she wasn’t about to start crying because he had no idea what he’d do in that case. But she only fidgeted a minute more, and then blurted out, “She came back and it was my birthday and she was going to make everyone go away! So I kind of made them go away first, and then I couldn’t get them back, so I went after them and then _I_ couldn’t get back.” The stomp of a small foot was accompanied by a pointing finger and a glare at the witch. “ _She_ keeps coming back and says she wants to help but she’s going to make it worse, I know she is!” 

It took him a moment to process that, and when he had Schmendrick laughed. He laughed probably a good deal more than sounded healthy, because when he started wiping the tears from his eyes all three of them were staring at him. He could feel the humor twisting his smile sharp as he turned his attention to the witch. “You’re a bigger fool than I even took you for, madam. She’s not a baby witch, she’s an enchantress.”

“She will not be,” the witch began, and staggered back from something Eliza did. Whatever she was trying to do, it wasn’t a pleasant sound. 

Schmendrick leaned over, reaching with his own magic to correct her. “Not like that, dear; you’ve got to do it a little lighter. Higher? Good grief, I’m going to have to learn musical terminology for this. But remember you’re not one of those, all right?” 

She pouted at him, but that at least was easy to deal with. He just didn’t look away, as he didn’t look away from any of Molly’s expressions when he knew she wanted him to do something. At least most of the time he didn’t. It worked well enough, as she looked down after a moment and mumbled. “Okay.” 

At which the witch just hissed and vanished. 

“Did she just leave? For no reason?” Eliza asked, and they both looked around the room. He could hear a kind of control in the sound of her magic that made him wondered how old she’d actually be, if not for this. 

“No, she left for a very good reason - you have to be really selfish to be a witch, or an evil wizard. I think you have been protecting your family and the village, but you _might_ have been holding on to them just because you wanted to. Listening to me like you did, even though you didn’t want to, is an act of giving - and she didn’t like that.”

Eliza sighed and scuffed the floor with a shoe. “She’s going to come back, isn’t she?”

“Yes. Which means we need to do something about this mess first, and then start training you. Which means telling your parents what’s happened, I hope you know.” 

“Oh, you’re not letting her explain that to them on her own.” Molly had been watching the two of them warily, and with a little bit of wonder directed at the girl as she came over. “What did you mean by enchantress, Schmendrick?”

“Oh, you know, a good witch. For some reason they all insist on using a different word for it.” Schmendrick waved his hand, blinking as they both laughed at him. 

At his questioning look, they both spoke. “It’s prettier!” “It does sound a good deal nicer than ‘witch’, Schmendrick.” 

Then Eliza looked at Molly. “Why are boys dumb?” 

Molly visibly bit back a laugh. “I think it’s more that they’re taught different things, Your Majesty.” 

* * *

In the end, it took them so long to sort out what Eliza had done that the sun was rising, in whatever pocket of reality had them trapped. 

“It’s almost as if she pushed them aside, and the damage Demsella’s spell _would_ have done took their place.” Schmendrick said, rubbing his head as he felt the ache setting in. Meddling with time was never good for him. He thought it had something to do with how long he’d been immortal. 

Molly had started brushing Eliza’s hair when she complained of a headache, and she glanced over without stopping. “Do you mean there are two places at once? Two of the castle, the town, everything?” 

“Everything.” he agreed heavily, and flopped onto his back to stare at the ceiling. “But we only need one, the one with the living people in it. Maybe if we send them all back to before this mess started?” 

Eliza turned to glare at him and got the brush twisted in her hair. “No, then it’ll all just happen again. Ow!” 

Molly tsked. “Well, be still a moment. You’re not doing anything yet!” She waited until Eliza was facing the right way again before she resumed the discussion. “My question is, why not just make them trade places. Can you do that?”

He almost scoffed at the idea, except he felt Eliza plucking at the magic again and winced. He noted to himself, rather vaguely, that he needed to get her to stop doing that. She had all the power any reasonable person could need, and none of the caution. 

Which was disturbing because he could ‘hear’ what she was doing now, and as with the original spell, it was nothing he would have thought of. No caution at all, but a lot of natural talent. They pushed and prodded at the magic for a moment, and then looked at each other and nodded. “She’s right. That’s going to work!” 

“Yes it is. Molly, we need to go now. Don’t worry, Your Majesty.” He bowed even as he was standing, which felt a bit awkward. “We’ll be right outside, and see you as soon as it’s done.”

He thought a minute, and shrugged. “Well. We’ll see you as soon as your parents allow us, I suppose.” 

“I know.” Eliza laughed, and hugged Molly. 

Already the room was beginning to look a bit less sugary, a bit more real. As they hurried through the castle and into the town, the rate of change increased around them, until it looked no more like a fairy tale than any town with a gentle mist cloaking the sunrise might. Molly whispered, as if she might wake the townsfolk by talking too loudly, “Do you think they’ll remember?”

“I doubt it.” Schmendrick shrugged. “For them, it never actually happened. Come all the way out, please. We weren’t there to begin with, so we can’t be there at the end or it won’t work.” 

“Is this the end, then?” Molly asked him, teasing.

He laughed. “I seem to remember saying once that there aren’t any endings. Anyway, she’s much too young for her story to end. I’d rather call it a beginning.” And he reached out, as he felt Eliza reaching out, so that between the two of them the ruined town fell away with the morning mists. 

What remained was the town he remembered passing through all those years ago, as solid again as the earth on which it stood.


End file.
